ponde003

This project studies toxicogenomics in wild birds using domestic chicken and sharp-tailed grouse as model species. The researchers employ genome-reducing RNA-seq frameworks with next-generation sequencing data to identify biomarkers and evaluate gene expression related to immune suppression due to neonicotinoid pesticides. Time-series data of blood and other immune tissues will be collected to generate up to 56 whole transcriptome samples using Illumina HiSeq paired-end reads. Standard bioinformatics and statistical analyses (e.g. quality control of high-throughput sequencing data, mapping to reference genomes and de novo assembly, BLAST comparison for functional annotation, and normalization) are performed using high-performance computing environments to analyze differential gene and transcript expressions.